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Post by WettCoast on May 2, 2018 15:46:57 GMT -8
The summer schedule for route one will have improvements for Friday with sailings at 600h and 2359h (midnight). The 600h sailing was Monday to Thursday and Saturday over the past several years. Its interesting that sailings from Swartz Bay at 8 PM, 10 PM & 11:59 PM are all being made by the QoNWM, while from Tsawwassen sailings at the same times are all made by the C-Cel. Obviously a mistake but you would think someone somewhere would catch this ...
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Post by Nickfro on May 25, 2018 8:11:52 GMT -8
Re: Route 2 and 3 current schedules. . .
The current schedule is quite interesting for the supplemental vessel (usually the Coquitlam). On weekdays it only shows this boat doing a 530pm Route 3 sailing from Horseshoe Bay and a 730pm Route 2 sailing from Horseshoe Bay. No other sailings listed. Given this ferry sleeps at Departure Bay, this boat either does 2 MD sailings or 2 deadheads. I would have to think they're always MD sailings, but why wouldn't they simply include those sailings on their weekday schedule? I find this quite strange.
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 25, 2018 9:03:11 GMT -8
Re: Route 2 and 3 current schedules. . . The current schedule is quite interesting for the supplemental vessel (usually the Coquitlam). On weekdays it only shows this boat doing a 530pm Route 3 sailing from Horseshoe Bay and a 730pm Route 2 sailing from Horseshoe Bay. No other sailings listed. Given this ferry sleeps at Departure Bay, this boat either does 2 MD sailings or 2 deadheads. I would have to think they're always MD sailings, but why wouldn't they simply include those sailings on their weekday schedule? I find this quite strange. Very interesting indeed; Looking at todays departures page the Coquitlam does a 1000/1215 round trip from Dep. Bay to HSB and back. So she is in Departure Bay around 1400, but she doesn’t have any scheduled sailings back to HSB despite having a 1730 sailing from HSB to Langdale. This leaves her in Langdale with no scheduled sailing back to HSB for her 1930 trip home to Dep. Bay.
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John H
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Post by John H on May 25, 2018 19:48:01 GMT -8
Re: Route 2 and 3 current schedules. . . The current schedule is quite interesting for the supplemental vessel (usually the Coquitlam). On weekdays it only shows this boat doing a 530pm Route 3 sailing from Horseshoe Bay and a 730pm Route 2 sailing from Horseshoe Bay. No other sailings listed. Given this ferry sleeps at Departure Bay, this boat either does 2 MD sailings or 2 deadheads. I would have to think they're always MD sailings, but why wouldn't they simply include those sailings on their weekday schedule? I find this quite strange. Very interesting indeed; Looking at todays departures page the Coquitlam does a 1000/1215 round trip from Dep. Bay to HSB and back. So she is in Departure Bay around 1400, but she doesn’t have any scheduled sailings back to HSB despite having a 1730 sailing from HSB to Langdale. This leaves her in Langdale with no scheduled sailing back to HSB for her 1930 trip home to Dep. Bay. Just an update, going by current conditions. As was mentioned she did the 1000/1215 (as scheduled), then a 1430 (not scheduled) to Horseshoe Bay, a 1641 to Langdale (normally the Queen of Surrey's sailing which was cancelled due to the Surrey running late), a 1745 from Langdale to Horseshoe Bay and a 1930 (as scheduled) from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay. Hard to tell from today what the normal set up will be since the Route 3 schedule was messed up due to the Surrey running so far behind. At least for today, it looks like there was some flexibility with how the Coquitlam was used - maybe that's the reason? It does seem strange to have only those two scheduled sailings that Dane mentioned though.
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Post by Departure Bay on May 28, 2018 9:39:09 GMT -8
A similar thing is going on today. The Queen of Coquitlam is here at Departure Bay this morning. She doesn't show on today's departures page as leaving Departure Bay, but she shows a sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale at 5:30 (no return trip to Horseshoe Bay shown) and a sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay at 7:30. Odd.
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Post by Departure Bay on May 28, 2018 12:36:44 GMT -8
And now, a sailing from Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay has been added for the Coquitlam, leaving at 2:30. It wasn't there when I posted a couple of hours ago.
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 28, 2018 14:30:59 GMT -8
Surely with all the “added sailings” they’ve been posting lately they are aware that the schedule posted is missing sailings.
I wonder if they are intentionally leaving out some sailings from the schedule so that people think they are “adding them last minute” to accommodate traffic.
Alternate thought; maybe they don’t scheudle it so that if traffic volumes are low enough they can have the ship deadhead its run to Horseshoe Bay and picks up a catering crew there to save some money. (Although I’m not convinced the HSB staff are trained for the Coq.)
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John H
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Post by John H on May 29, 2018 21:54:08 GMT -8
According to the Departures page, today there was a 2:30PM from Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay, a 5:30PM from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale, nothing from Langdale back to Horseshoe Bay, and a 7:30PM from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay.
The unscheduled 2:30PM sailing from DB to HB has been consistent so far. It does seem like a long time for a ferry to be sitting in Horseshoe Bay doing nothing: from approx. 4:15 to 5:30.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Jul 20, 2018 12:51:29 GMT -8
Maybe our stateside members could tell me if is something new. Looking at the WSF pages, I see that you can click on a date and get the schedule just for that day. I don't know why BC Ferries can't do this. They really need to, particularly on their convoluted schedules for routes five and nine, with different times for pretty much every day, and further exceptions for holidays. WSF also has a guide for busy sailing times for all routes, each weekday, peak season and non-peak.
Two things that should be pretty easy to do and would make life easier for the travelling public. I'm going to send a note asking why they don't.
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Post by Kahloke on Jul 20, 2018 13:11:08 GMT -8
Maybe our stateside members could tell me if is something new. Looking at the WSF pages, I see that you can click on a date and get the schedule just for that day. I don't know why BC Ferries can't do this. They really need to, particularly on their convoluted schedules for routes five and nine, with different times for pretty much every day, and further exceptions for holidays. WSF also has a guide for busy sailing times for all routes, each weekday, peak season and non-peak. Two things that should be pretty easy to do and would make life easier for the travelling public. I'm going to send a note asking why they don't. That is a nice feature. Schedule by date doesn't list the vessel unless you are looking at the current day, but it at least gives you the sailing times. Most of WSF's sailing times are pretty static - that is, they are the same each day. F-V-S and Seattle-Bainbridge have different weekend schedules, and there are some sailings on other routes that only operate on certain days, but generally, our system is not nearly as complex as some of the BC Ferries schedules, like the Southern Gulf Island routes you mentioned.
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Post by avgeekjoe on Sept 28, 2018 15:25:37 GMT -8
Hey got a serious question - what two boats are serving the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route 2 December?
Hope one of them is a Spirit as I want to ride a Spirit class back to Vancouver from a major Victoria avgeek event!
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Post by Kahloke on Sept 28, 2018 15:50:40 GMT -8
Hey got a serious question - what two boats are serving the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route 2 December? Hope one of them is a Spirit as I want to ride a Spirit class back to Vancouver from a major Victoria avgeek event! According to the BC Ferries reservation page for Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen on Sunday, December 2, this is the following schedule: 07:00 Coastal Celebration 09:00 Spirit of BC 11:00 Coastal Celebration 12:00 Coastal Renaissance 13:00 Spirit of BC 15:00 Coastal Celebration 16:00 Coastal Renaissance 17:00 Spirit of BC 19:00 Coastal Celebration 21:00 Spirit of BC
As usual, I'm assuming this is always subject to change. But, as of now, these are the vessels they list for Dec 2.
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Nick
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Post by Nick on Sept 28, 2018 16:08:06 GMT -8
Hey got a serious question - what two boats are serving the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route 2 December? Hope one of them is a Spirit as I want to ride a Spirit class back to Vancouver from a major Victoria avgeek event! The Spirit of BC will be the #1 vessel out of Tsawwassen until she goes for refit in January/February. Her service day will start at 0700 from Tsawwassen, you can do the math to figure out which sailings from there. This will be the case unless there is a mechanical breakdown. As you likely already know. the Spirit of Vancouver Island is on her way to Poland, and will not return until May/June 2019.
Unlike previous years, I would be very surprised to see the SoBC sidelined during the off season this year (aside from scheduled maintenance), due to the much lower operating cost of LNG.
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Post by Departure Bay on Sept 28, 2018 16:18:00 GMT -8
Hey got a serious question - what two boats are serving the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route 2 December? Hope one of them is a Spirit as I want to ride a Spirit class back to Vancouver from a major Victoria avgeek event! What's this "major Victoria avgeek event"? :-)
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Sept 28, 2018 16:37:59 GMT -8
Hey got a serious question - what two boats are serving the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route 2 December? Hope one of them is a Spirit as I want to ride a Spirit class back to Vancouver from a major Victoria avgeek event! The Spirit of BC will be the #1 vessel out of Tsawwassen until she goes for refit in January/February. Her service day will start at 0700 from Tsawwassen, you can do the math to figure out which sailings from there. This will be the case unless there is a mechanical breakdown. As you likely already know. the Spirit of Vancouver Island is on her way to Poland, and will not return until May/June 2019.
Unlike previous years, I would be very surprised to see the SoBC sidelined during the off season this year (aside from scheduled maintenance), due to the much lower operating cost of LNG.
I doubt the Spirits would not be slidelined after convention to LNG. Which leads into another question where Coastal Renaissance stay on route 2 year round after Spirit of Vancouver Island is back from Poland? If this case the Coastal Celebration will be replacement for her sisters and be secondary vessel out Swartz Bay if she isn’t on different route or in for maintenance.
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Post by terrybc on Sept 29, 2018 12:10:12 GMT -8
According to the Departures page, today there was a 2:30PM from Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay, a 5:30PM from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale, nothing from Langdale back to Horseshoe Bay, and a 7:30PM from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay. The unscheduled 2:30PM sailing from DB to HB has been consistent so far. It does seem like a long time for a ferry to be sitting in Horseshoe Bay doing nothing: from approx. 4:15 to 5:30. I've been noticing this as well. These sailings have been added on a short notice pretty much on a weekday due to traffic at Departure Bay. It shows that BCF needs to run this schedule in Sept & possibly into October. BCF has also announced this summer that traffic is up on all routes so they should be matching the sailings with traffic demands!
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Post by avgeekjoe on Sept 29, 2018 12:23:18 GMT -8
Hey got a serious question - what two boats are serving the Swartz Bay-Tsawwassen route 2 December? Hope one of them is a Spirit as I want to ride a Spirit class back to Vancouver from a major Victoria avgeek event! What's this "major Victoria avgeek event"? :-) Royal Canadian Air Force Sea King retirement 1 December. Going to do a flypast to/from Victoria International Airport where they're based.
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Post by avgeekjoe on Sept 29, 2018 12:23:34 GMT -8
Thanks guys for your help!
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Post by hwy19man on Oct 5, 2018 1:30:48 GMT -8
The Thanksgiving weekend schedule for route 1 on Friday and Monday show hourly sailings from 600h to 2200h on the schedule page of the website and on the reservations page. It looked like the New Westminster and Celebration would be deadheading back to their home ports. The actual departures page does show the midnight sailings from both terminals for Friday. Why the discrepancies?
Schedule listings for route 1 are shown up to the end of March 2020.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Oct 9, 2018 18:41:35 GMT -8
Queen of Oak Bay will be done her day, excluding Friday to Sunday including November 8 and 11, after the 5:55 pm depart from Departure Bay. I remember two years ago it would be the Queen of Cowichan would not do her last round trip Monday thru Thursday. www.bcferries.com/schedules/mainland/hbna-current.php
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Post by Departure Bay on Oct 9, 2018 21:20:55 GMT -8
The Queen of Surrey did a round trip between Horseshoe Bay and Departure Bay tonight - departing Horseshoe Bay at 6:35 pm and leaving Departure Bay at 8:45 pm. I assume this will be the case for the winter season.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Oct 29, 2018 17:52:02 GMT -8
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Post by futureferrydriver on Oct 30, 2018 11:39:26 GMT -8
My feeling towards Sunshine Coasters complaining about ferry service/prices is pretty much “well, you chose to live there, if you don’t like ferries then move somewhere else.” That said, I total see where they’re coming from with this one; 3 hours is a long time and 11:30/midnight is way too late for people to be getting home on an average week night for a lot of people who would probably be done their mainland activities by 8 or 9. At the same time I personally love the later sailings, and having the last ferry at like 9pm is equally crappy for a lot of residents who want to come to the mainland for an evening event, without having to spent the night. Unfortunately there isn’t a simple fix here to make everyone happy. Obviously lots of people think 22:55 is too late and want the last sailing to be earlier. But moving the last sailing earlier isn’t great for people who want to be out later. I’m farily sure BC Ferries doesn’t have the ability to add an extra sailing in that gap, and even if they did it probably wouldn’t be busy enough to be justified (cost wise). It’s a long ways off but I hope one day we will see route 3 operating with 2 smaller ships instead of 1 big one.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Oct 30, 2018 14:15:47 GMT -8
My feeling towards Sunshine Coasters complaining about ferry service/prices is pretty much “well, you chose to live there, if you don’t like ferries then move somewhere else.” That said, I total see where they’re coming from with this one; 3 hours is a long time and 11:30/midnight is way too late for people to be getting home on an average week night for a lot of people who would probably be done their mainland activities by 8 or 9. At the same time I personally love the later sailings, and having the last ferry at like 9pm is equally crappy for a lot of residents who want to come to the mainland for an evening event, without having to spent the night. Unfortunately there isn’t a simple fix here to make everyone happy. Obviously lots of people think 22:55 is too late and want the last sailing to be earlier. But moving the last sailing earlier isn’t great for people who want to be out later. I’m farily sure BC Ferries doesn’t have the ability to add an extra sailing in that gap, and even if they did it probably wouldn’t be busy enough to be justified (cost wise). It’s a long ways off but I hope one day we will see route 3 operating with 2 smaller ships instead of 1 big one. But BC Ferries could do Sunday through Thursday and Friday and Saturday schedule for route 3. My plan would see the last sailing for Sunday to Thursday out of Horeshoe Bay is at 9:30 pm and Friday and Saturday would see the last sailing out of Horeshoe Bay at 10:55 pm. But better option for BC Ferries is to addition round trip with rewritten schedule for route 3. I doubt that 2 small ferries will be able the traffic levels in future, I think we see two replacements C-Class on route 3 because Sunshine Coast like the rest of South Coast is growing to population.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Nov 3, 2018 17:32:03 GMT -8
I don’t get why BC Ferries doesn’t make this permanent schedule for route 3.
I think with a little better adjustment to to this schedule to make sure there is sailing between 5:30 pm to 6:15 pm from Horeshoe Bay would be win win scenario for BC Ferries because it would end the unnecessary vessel swap and ends the three grap between the second and last sailing out of Horeshoe Bay.
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